GridWorld, Washington, D.C., September 11, 2006 - The Open Grid Forum (OGF), formed from the merger of the Global Grid Forum (GGF) and the Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA), today officially launched the new organization including announcing the Board-of-Directors, Operational leadership team, mission and strategic priorities.

The OGF's new board-of-directors is comprised of world-class organizations and individuals tasked with providing guidance and helping to ensure the ongoing health of the organization. Members of the new OGF board are:

OGF's new operational leadership is composed of Mark Linesch, President, and 7 Vice Presidents, responsible for leading the organizational functions critical to delivering results. The Operational leadership team and their functions are:

OGF's mission is to accelerate grid adoption to ensure business value and scientific discovery. Driven by this mission, the organization will focus on two strategic priorities over the next 12 to 18 months:

1. Establishing a more productive environment for grid innovation, outreach and communication. One near term deliverable in this area is the development of a comprehensive white paper to clarify the positioning and value proposition for grids within the broader distribČuted computing ecosystem. The white paper is planned for release in January 2007.
2. A redoubling of efforts to deliver specifications that enable grid software interoperability. A new committee has been established and chartered with developing an ongoing OGF Technical Strategy and Roadmap. A series of workshops are planned, beginning with GGF18 at GridWorld, to ensure alignment of the strategy and roadmap with key end user and software communities. The initial document will be published in Q1, 2007.

"Our new organization combines two simple but synergistic concepts: 'Open Forum' and 'Open Standards'", said Mark Linesch, President and CEO of the OGF. "As an Open Forum, OGF brings the grid community together to identify and align requirements, workshop specifications and best practices, and communicate progress. As an Open Standards organization, OGF aligns with broadly adopted industry standards while developing new specifications to enable grid software interoperability."

Building on the significant progress made by the GGF and EGA, the organization inherits dozens of active working groups and published documents, including 25 produced in 2006. As a new integrated organization, OGF has set a firm strategic foundation to address the needs of the scientific and commercial users, while bringing all of the communities together to communicate, collaborate and accelerate results.

About Open Grid Forum
Open Grid Forum (OGF) was formed in June, 2006 with the merger of the Global Grid Forum (GGF) and the Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA). Headquartered in Chicago, OGF is a community of users, researchers, developers, and solution providers representing over 400 organizations in more than 50 countries. OGF works to accelerate grid adoption - providing an open forum for grid innovation and developing open standards for grid software interoperability.